Chemicals for Desalination

Chemicals for desalination water treatment from Veolia Water Technologies South Africa (Veolia) comprise the Hydrex™ 4000 series, one in Veolia’s range of Hydrex™ chemicals, each tailored for unique application requirements. Essentially, these specific chemicals for desalination methods optimises membrane processes.

Especially developed for reverse osmosis, nanofiltration and ultrafiltration treatment plants, these water treatment chemicals from Veolia South Africa have international membrane suppliers’ approval and are used at plants and by companies in South Africa and Africa. Hydrex™ 4000 protects membrane elements by keeping them free of scale and bacteria growth, simultaneously avoiding external elemental degradation through specially formulated chemicals.

Maintenance, costs and operational benefits

The process using these specially formulated chemicals helps to reduce maintenance and operation costs and ensures smooth and efficient operation through dechlorination, surface disinfection and /or membrane cleaning. The Hydrex™ 4000 Series includes:

Membrane Protection

The Hydrex™ 4000 series covers chemicals that are suitable for filtration membrane protection. These include:

Anti-scaling agents

Biocides

Chlorine removal

C.I.P. programmes

Storage agents

Suitable for any membrane process, the Hydrex™ 4000 range of chemicals play an important role during each stage of a desalination plant’s life cycle, from pre-treatment through to preservation. One of the benefits of these chemicals for desalination is the Anti-Scalant Dosing Control Simulator software programme, developed by the Veolia Group. This programme allows Veolia to analyse its customers’ water streams which helps its engineers to design membrane plants that suit specific applications.

Water fit for Human Consumption

To obtain drinking water, or water fit for human consumption, once the reverse osmosis procedure has run its course, additional chemicals to kill any remaining bacteria and balance the pH are used. For this purpose, Veolia offers the Hydrex™ 3000 series, which incorporates chemicals suitable for drinking water treatment. These include:

Corrosion inhibitors

Scale inhibitors

Odour control

Coagulants

Polymers

Veolia designed, constructed and operated a turnkey reverse osmosis desalination plant in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape. The plant can supply up to 15 mega litres of desalinated water each day, 5 mega litres for process use and 10 mega litres sufficiently pure water for human consumption (drinking water). Click here to read the full case study.

Local and international approval

A number of the Hydrex™ 4000 range of chemicals for desalination are SABS-approved, and approval by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) gives it international acceptance. ANSI has named some of the Hydrex™ 4000 products fit for human consumption. Most of the 4000 series chemical range are approved by major membrane suppliers, with some of them approved by the NSF (an independent, accredited organisation that develops standards, and tests and certifies products and systems) and UL (a global independent safety science company) for drinking water applications.

You can secure a clean, renewable and consistent fresh water supply by developing your own sewater desalination programme! Enquire now or contact us to find out how.

Veolia South Africa provides a unique service where, subsequent to the plant membrane assessment, Veolia’s chemical division evaluates the assessment to ensure correct product selection, which helps to optimise plant operations at lower costs. The software allows customers to model their programme on a day-to-day basis and monitor water quality changes as well as evaluate a plant’s evolving requirements.